A guide to motor insurance & FAQ's

Here's my story with renewal, a bit of an interesting one maybe.

My insurance was due for renewal in November last year and I received my renewal quote in September for ~€500 (Tesco/RSA). I priced around a few places and found one for about €480 (with full claims protection of my 8 years which I wasn't sure I currently had) so I saved the quote number ready to go when the time came.

Then in October I had my first accident - line of traffic in a town, over a blind bridge, car stopped ahead (turning right), everyone jams on the brakes, I hit car in front. Mine was a bit dented, hers had a scratch. We agreed I'd pay her car repair costs and left it at that. A few days later I got the call that she had a sore neck and was claiming. Fine. I informed the insurance and left it with them.

As none of this was settled by the time my renewal date came around my existing renewal quote (€500) kicked in. So no increases last year - great.


So to this year:

Claim was finally settled and closed just last month (€11k) and I received my renewal quote for this year - €1,290. Turns out I had zero no claims protection on my policy at the time of the accident. So I got busy on the phones with my zero no claims discount and not much hope.

It came up in a couple of conversations with insurers/brokers that my accident happened in October 14 and that I had since had a year of driving and insurance without any further claims and that I might be entitled to a one year's no claims discount (they hadn't given me one). I did contact my insurer and try to wrangle the year out of them but they weren't having it. Another broker claimed that they should, I was extremely doubtfull but I ended up contacting the Irish Insurance Federation to clarify once and for all. They confirmed that I had no chance as they had not increased my premium last year and the claim wasn't settled until recently. Fine.

I made A LOT(!) of phone calls. I received quotes from €1,200 to €2,900. €1,200 was with AA after a fair bit of negotiating. Second best was €1,250 with a broker (zero negotiating). So with my renewal date closing I had one phone call left and that was to try negotiate the broker down further. If they came to €1,200 (which I'm sure they would) I was sold. I rang the office, payment details ready but I just couldn't get through. I tried and tried that morning and I just couldn't get through. Sometimes the phone was engaged so there was obviously somebody there but no way would they answer which was a bit infuriating.

I noticed they had a Dublin branch too so I rang there. Explained that I couldn't get through to the other branch and that I wanted to discuss a quote but was told that for privacy reasons customer details or quotes were not shared between offices. The woman told me that she could email the person I was looking for for me or she could give me a fresh quote herself. I was a bit tired of quotes at this stage but I figured she'd quote me similar to the other branch and then I could just negotiate it with her instead.
So on I went with my details for what must have been close to the 20th time. Again, she piped up about the year of driving and insurance since my accident. I assured her I had been there many times and that it was a no go but to be fair to her she wasn't giving up on it and told me to leave it with her for a while and she'd ring me back.

She got back to me and told me that she found an insurer who would cover me with one year of no claims bonus for €750! :eek: Not only was she just after saving me €450, she was after getting me a year's no claims bonus. So next year, instead of having 1 year I'll now have 2. The year after, instead of 2 I'll have 3... She's saving me money for maybe my next 3/4 renewals.
Not only that but the €750 quote included full no claims protection, breakdown cover and the driving of other cars - which the €1,200 hadn't done.

I had talked to a lot of insurers and brokers and she was the only one who realised that an insurer might accept me with 1 years NCB and she pursued it.

All credit to her and thank Christ her partner in the other office didn't answer the phone!




(TLDR: Protect your no claims bonus)

Business Cat wrote: »

Good for you.

What's the excess on the new policy?

€300 (90% sure of this. I'll have to check it again. Still have a number of quotes and figures stuck in my head)

To Elland Back wrote: »

Have you supplied all the documents required to fulfil the transaction. If so, you are away in a hack. I would be of the school of thought that if your previous bonus was not affected by the claim, you would have no bonus earned for the year just gone

Yes all documents supplied and insurance disc received. I'm not hiding anything from them at all and they are very aware of the situation. They just asked that I sign a form to state that I had no further claims since.

It is an interesting one regarding my last year's driving with no bonus to show for it. I accept the insurers position that they hadn't hit me with an increase last year. But I mean whatever way you look at it I still had that year of driving there without a claim. The IIF said the only possible way to get a letter with 1 years NCB on it would be to come to an agreement with them to pay whatever last year's hike would have been if they had taken the accident into account.

My previous insurer also told me that if the claim hadn't been settled for a few years my no claims bonus would only have started again once it eventually settled, which I thought harsh.

It's probably all common practice but it was new to me.

Personally, I think you got a result because somebody didn't grasp your circumstances, but that has gone in your favour, so well done. As for the advice someone offered about your bonus only restarting after the claim had been settled, that's not correct

corks finest wrote: »

Greed

Solvency

corks finest wrote: »

Back to the eighties,when one or 2 company's had us all by the nuts

We've driven out all the major World insurers with our claims culture and it's a long way off being as bad as it's going to get

La Fenetre wrote: »

So deal with the people making false claims, instead of robbing those who don't.
But I guess there's more profit in that.

Come up with the solution on how to go about that and any insurer in Ireland will guarantee you a 7 figure annual salary

La Fenetre wrote: »

To silence me, or to implement it like any other industry does ?

And we all know the Irish motor insurance industry has one of the most dubious and least trustworthy in histories Europe, from PMPA to Quinn.

You edited your post to include 2 notorious below cost providers of insurance who could not keep their business alive by charging unsustainable low premiums.

Rant all you like about corporate greed, but we are all reaping what we sowed

La Fenetre wrote: »

Yep I can see how keeping premiums as high as possible, and making constant excuses for it, would be in your interests all right. Thing is the Irish public are not as stupid as you like to think.

Irish people are far from being thick, but they are devious